|
|
|
Lily hated superstition. She lived her whole life trying to prove that superstitions were made up so that smarter people could laugh at dumber people doing stupid things. Whenever she was with her friend, Mai, who was always talking about broken mirrors, umbrellas being opened inside, or spilling salt, she would proudly tell her how many superstitions she had broken. She had a little notebook that she carried around with her that had all the superstitions written down and next to them were numbers. The numbers represented how many times she had broken the superstition labeled. She proudly flashed this in Mai’s face as well.
When Lily was nineteen and Mai was twenty, they both got into the same university. They were thrilled that they could stay together. Other than superstitions, the girls were very close friends and very much alike. They made sure that they would share an apartment together.
They day they were moving in, they heard some strange noises. It sounded like something was scratching against metal. Mai dropped the box she was moving, “What was that?” she spat out at her friend.
“Are you kidding me? You’re afraid? It’s bright and sunny outside. How are you scared?” Lily rolled her eyes, “Fine, I’ll go and check it out.”
Lily walked towards the bedroom where the noise had come from and opened the door. Mai watched as her friend disappeared into the supposedly empty room.
“What the heck! No! Don’t touch me! Those claws! Those fangs! No!” Lily’s voice could be heard screaming for anywhere in their new apartment or any of the apartments around them. Lucky for the girls all the other apartments in their building were still empty.
“Lily!” Mai yelped and fell to her knees.
“No! No! It’s a …it’s a…” she slowly crawled out of the room with her hand on her chest, “It’s a cute little kitten.”
“What?” Mai asked confused.
Lily stood up to reveal a small white puffball no bigger than her hand was at her chest. “It was a kitten in a little kennel carrier thing. I think we should keep her.”
“Lily!” Mai whined, “You can’t just keep some strange cat you just found! It isn’t yours.”
“It’s not like it’s a scary black cat, she’s just a baby,” Lily stated firmly, and the argument was won.
The girls named the kitten Angel and nothing special happened for a while. College life was hard, but fun for the girls. Angel was the sweetest kitten they had ever met. It took no time at all for Lily to fall in love with her. Mai eventually couldn’t resist the kitten any longer and, despite her instincts, she began to love the cat as well.
A few months later, on a cold October night, Lily was home alone with Angel doing her homework. Mai had gone out earlier with her new boyfriend. It was the first storm of the year and Angel was acting strange. Usually, she would try play with the smiley face eraser on Lily’s pencil as she wrote and Lily would have to put her in her little kennel to get some work done. Today she wouldn’t come out from under the bed.
Lily was getting frustrated, so she decided to take a small break from her essay to feed Angel. She poured her some food and looked under the bed. She saw Angel’s eyes, but oddly enough, she couldn’t see her white fur through the darkness.
Lily figured she would come out when the thunder settled down. She started to walk away when she heard a faint whisper.
“108 ladders…” a raspy voice spoke, one that sent chills down Lily’s spine.
Lily turned around, but she couldn’t see anything so she turned off the bedroom light and started to go to the kitchen when that voice stopped her dead in her tracks. This time, though, it was a little louder.
“17 mirrors, 32 salt shakers…”
“Where are you? Who are you?” Lily shouted into the seemingly empty room. Angel walked out from under the bed. Her fur was dusty and gray, which was why Lily had been unable to see her before. She opened her mouth, and a small, raspy, female voice exited her lips.
“4 umbrellas, 56 black cats, the lists goes on and on.”
Lily recognized those numbers. They were the same in her notebook, “Angel? You can talk? How?” She dropped to her knees to get a closer look at Angel.
“You never cared about superstition. It’s too bad you didn’t. Black cats are bad luck, but once you’ve brought enough bad luck upon yourself, it’s the white cats that watch you closely. And the white cats that wait until the skies are dark and stormy. Once my coat of fur becomes as dark as the night’s sky. I’m afraid your time will expire. Don’t worry, though, I’ll live here happily with Mai. After all, she’s never broken a superstition rule in her life. What a good friend she was to try and get you to do the same.”
Angel’s cute little baby teeth grew into long fangs. A crack in the window blew in cold winds the brushed over her fur, changing it jet black.
“But…I don’t…I can’t…this can’t be real…” Lily was paralyzed with fear.
“Oh but it is real, oh so real.” Angel pounced at Lily’s neck, puncturing her flesh easily and draining the life out of her. It didn’t take long before Lily dropped onto the ground. A lifeless corpse of an arrogant girl was under a small little kitten.
When Mai found her Angel was sleeping on the bed. Her beautiful white fur seemed to glow in the depressing room. Mai couldn’t believe Lily had died. She didn’t understand how. After all, the cops couldn’t figure it out themselves, no one ever did.
 Alatria · Wed Jan 03, 2007 @ 08:07pm · 0 Comments |
|
|
|
|
|
